Trappers get nuisance animals out of people's way

TOM BREENFlorida Today

Published Sunday, September 04, 2005

click photo to enlarge

Rob Dagen (on roof) and TJ Morgan of TJ's Wildlife Removal prepare to use a camera into the roof of a home in Palm Shores Tuesday afternoon. They are looking for a raccoon that is living in the roof of the home.

Photo by Craig Bailey MELBOURNE -- Unharmed but confused, the adult male raccoon sat in a cage, looking plaintively at his captors.

"He's obviously not injured or carrying a disease," said Timothy Morgan, the 40-year-old manager of TJ's Wildlife Removal service of Melbourne. "We'll relocate him far away from people. He'll be OK. He's no threat to anybody. He just wanted to eat."

The raccoon had been eating his way through a mobile home park before being caught recently.

His captors -- Morgan and his assistant, Rob Dagen, 22 -- are "nuisance wildlife trappers," an unusual breed that removes all sorts of creatures from homes and businesses across Florida.

Within the Brevard County, nearly 50 such trappers are licensed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission to catch wild animals and relocate them to remote areas whenever possible.

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West Melbourne, Fla. - Janice Campbell, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, holds two juvenile screech owls at the West Melbourne branch of Coons Run Wildlife Sanctuary Thursday, August 25, 2005. The screech owls were rescued from a Merritt Island resident's yard after the owner did not see the mother owl return to the nest for a serveral days. The owls have been in Campbell's care for about six weeks and are about three weeks from being released back into the wild.

- Photo by Christina Stuart

They operate in a parallel universe from most of us, tracking down raccoons as well as opossums, foxes, snakes, wild hogs, birds, alligators and other critters that often hunt for food in heavily developed areas.

Of all the trappers in the county, Morgan is among the best known.

Good-natured and animated, he can be spotted day and night wearing a military-style hat and combat pants and driving a beige van with "TJ's" on the side and trapping equipment in the back.

He is unable to do the actual trapping work because of an arm injury -- Dagen does that -- but he supervises most jobs.

While Brevard is home to roughly 500,000 people, with all the modern amenities that go with growth, it also remains a habitat for thousands of wild animals that stay put even when a housing development or business complex pops up to eliminate their natural food source.

Because of growth, wild animals have been forced to adjust to people and development, and often end up inside attics, walls, garages, trash cans and even living rooms and kitchens in a search of food.

"Instead of eating crayfish and frogs in the wild, these animals are living off dog food and Big Macs in people's neighborhoods," said Gary Nichols, 29, owner of D and D's Nuisance Wildlife Removal and Relocation service.

The biggest mistakes people make are to leave pet food in open areas, garbage in containers or bags for extended periods, or actually feed wild animals.

"The more you feed them, the more problems there will be, and it's against the law," said Nichols, who has seen the region transformed from a rural setting, where wildlife roamed freely, into to a nascent urban area.

In most cases, humans need not fear attacks, or bites, from wildlife, including snakes and alligators, which are interested solely in eating and not attacking. Nevertheless, caution always is advised when encountering any wild creature, especially those such as raccoons or bats that might be carrying rabies.

In July, the Brevard County Health Department warned residents that a rabies-carrying raccoon had been located in Melbourne.

Residents were urged to safeguard their pets, to stay away from wild animals and to call the county's Animal Services and Enforcement agency if observing strange behavior from wild or domestic animals.

"Rabies is fatal if not treated in time," a Health Department press statement starkly noted.

But for trappers and others spending their lives monitoring wildlife in the county, rabies is rarely a concern.

"We've all had our pre-exposure vaccines and are aware of proper handling and how to safely confront wild animals," said Janice Campbell, president of Coon's Run Wildlife Sanctuary. "Our primary concern is public safety and the well-being of the animals -- relocating them well beyond large population areas," and killing them only as a "last resort due to life-devastating injuries or disease."

She works closely with licensed trappers, preferring those, especially Morgan, who do everything possible to protect wildlife.

Trappers transport animals to her. Then she nurses them back to health for eventual release in still undeveloped portions of the county.

"Injured or orphaned wildlife are taken to wildlife rehabiltators," she said. "Trappers determine the fates of the adult animals."

Susan Canada of Titusville, a licensed trapper working with Campbell, has been helping wildlife in Brevard since the 1990s. Sometimes she draws attention when working.

"I'm only 5 foot 3, and I'll be standing around hog trapping, and people will wonder what I'm doing there," she said. "Those hogs can weigh several hundred pounds."

Thousands of wild hogs roam around the county, foraging on a regular basis, she said. As for Campbell's operation, it is one of two such sanctuaries in Brevard. The other is the Florida Wildlife Hospital on U.S. 1 in Melbourne. The two are the only organizations licensed by the state fish and wildlife commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

A Michigan native, Campbell started her organization in 1991.

"My daughter, Gloria, brought home an infant raccoon after finding it in the sand on Merritt Island, covered with ants," Campbell said. The animal obviously had been abandoned by its parents. Campbell nursed the raccoon she called Rocky back to health, with help from a local veterinarian.

That experience inspired her to become a "wildlife rehabilitator," someone who cares for babies and injured animals, preparing them for a return to the wild. In 14 years, she has cared for more than 10,000 animals, animals that once considered most of Brevard their private sanctuary.

Nichols, the trapper who also is a community services officer for the Melbourne Police Department, recalled a time, out near Interstate 95 in Melbourne, when "everybody rode horses" in his neighborhood during the day and "listened to the calming sounds of the foxes, owls, raccoons and bobcats at night."

Most of his old neighborhood is paved over now, populated with people, condominiums, housing developments and office buildings.

"I'm not against progress, but it's still sad to see what's happening where I grew up and all over the county," Nichols said. "Natural wildlife habitats are constantly being destroyed and animals have no choice but to find food wherever they can."